The Sims 3 World Adventures

from Electronic Arts, originally released 2nd April, 2010

Take your Sims on thrilling adventures to world famous destinations! “Al Simhara,” Egypt… “Champs Les Sims,” France… “Shang SimLa,” China. Each exciting location is loaded with a world of possibilities for danger, adventure, and romance for your Sim.

MEET GLOBAL CHALLENGES...

We only get one kick at the can, but few of us live our lives to the fullest extent. The Sims 3 World Adventures presents life the way it’s meant to be lived: From day to day, with good friends, and with more than a few weekends spent horsing around the Pyramids or the Eiffel Tower. But while The Sims 3 World Adventures looks deep into the souls of those afflicted by wanderlust and projects their every wish, the game’s presentation is pretty standard Sims stuff, and doesn’t feel very exotic.

You begin The Sims 3 World Adventures by crafting your very own virtual person. Or, if you like, you can import a previously-made Sim from The Sims 3 for the iPhone/iPod Touch. Either way, your goal is familiar: You must keep your Sim happy and content by feeding it, grooming it, helping it to land a job, and holding its hand while it uses the toilet.

See the world’s biggest floating mime!

This particular version of Sims 3 has a small twist, however. Hint: It has to do with the “World Adventures” subtitle. Your Sim has an innate desire to ramble, and you must help it make excursions around the globe. Destinations include Egypt, France, and China.

Though your Sim can park itself abroad for a considerable amount of time, its early trips will almost certainly be bite-sized weekend affairs until it builds a career beyond “cash register monkey.” As a result, you’ll probably feel compelled to squeeze every minute of fun out of your Sim’s jaunt. When your Sim is on a trip, it’ll think of various wishes it’d like to fulfill, which land you with the responsibility of making it happen. Your Sim might want to collect an exotic recipe, buy furniture, harvest a native plant, or make a foreign friend laugh.

Good luck getting that bullwhip through airport security, Dr. Jones.

Despite the game’s interesting surroundings, there’s little about The Sims 3 World Adventures that makes the game as exciting as actually flying around the world. Characters still babble in lovable but familiar Simlish. Your Sim will still throw a tantrum about using the toilet when you want to go and see the Sphinx. And even though your Sim might wander off the path well-traveled by tourists (ours found the entrance to some undiscovered ruins, netting some cool reward cash), you’re informed of these side trips through a text message, not through any kind of visuals.

The Sims 3 World Adventures has a few intriguing ideas, but they’re half-baked. There is, for instance, an air sickness minigame that involves keeping the picture in focus while the plane is in flight. If you manage to keep things clear by using the iPhone’s tilt function, your Sim will arrive at its destination as fresh as a daisy. If you screw up– and it’s very easy to screw up– your Sim will be a pukey, grumpy mess and you’ll waste a lot of time getting it cleaned up and into bed. If time is tight and you’re due back at your job, disaster is inevitable.

The Sims 3 World Adventures is undeniably a strong game, but that’s primarily owed to its pedigree. It’s hard to avoid becoming engrossed in any kind of Sims adventure. If you’re aching to see how your Sim might react to visiting the Pyramids, go for The Sims 3 World Adventures. Otherwise, stay home and order in some Chinese food.

Is your Sim going out of their mind with boredom and wanderlust? Have you already mastered fishing, cooking, and making WooHoo with the neighbors? Then it’s time to sign up for new conquests in the upcoming stand-alone expansion pack, The Sims 3 World Adventures.

You can import your iPhone Sims 3 character as soon as you boot up World Adventures, which is a nice touch, but it only affects the way your Sim looks. All their personality and progress has to be reset– after all, who doesn’t reinvent themselves every time they travel? Your home and furniture are also reset, so say goodbye to all your fancy stuff. With enough traveling, though, you’ll eventually be able to deck out your home with exotic furnishings like a sarcophagus or pagoda refrigerator.

In World Adventures, your home town of Sunset Valley has received an upgrade. You can now visit a nearby museum, which will house any artifacts you sell them from your travels, and an airport, which will whisk you away to Sim versions of Egypt, China, and France. When you buy your plane ticket, you can spring for the cheaper economy class or the pricey first class, and it will make a difference in your flight. If you fly cheap, you’ll have to play a motion-sickness minigame that involves tilting the phone to keep the airplane’s window in focus. If you fail, your Sim will arrive sick and tired.

There are three other minigames in exotic lands as well: Bartering, tomb exploration, and overcoming the language barrier. Each new location also has a monument to see, like the Great Wall or Eiffel Tower, and visiting these will give you real-world historical trivia and a montage of your Sim happily snapping pictures.

While we really enjoyed the change of scenery, and the new tasks that let you marry foreigners and buy exotic furniture, this is mostly the same game as The Sims 3. That’s great if you enjoyed the last one, but don’t expect a radically different user interface or too many new kinds of social interactions.

Just like before, you can flirt your way into just about anyone’s life, or make enemies by breaking into their home at night and raiding their fridge. The main difference is that now, after you’ve ruined your reputation at home, you can fly on a plane and do it all over again somewhere new. The Sims 3 World Adventures will be available next month.

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